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Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Difference between revisions
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Raising children is one of the most daunting challenges a parent can face. You have to supply material needs like food and shelter, as well as providing a moral education by teaching through example. You can see where this would be problematic when a parent supplies the latter by breaking kneecaps or [[The End of the World as We Know It|threatening global annihilation.]]
Some parents make ends meet through frowned-upon trades like [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|prostitution]], others turn to crime, some ''master'' crime and become [[The Don]], and there's more than a few [[Super Villain|Super Villains]] who start families... ''[[Surprise Pregnancy|intentionally]].'' The thing is, not every villain turned parent is a sociopath who chastises [[Overlord, Jr.]] for [[Inadequate Inheritor|not being evil enough]]. Quite a few realize the choices they have made and that the life they lead is a fundamentally destructive one and don't want their child to [[Legacy Character|mimic them]] as a [[Generation Xerox|family legacy.]]
What ends up happening is that the dad (and it's usually the dad who's the villain) hides his villainy one way or another. The easiest and hardest is to give the child up for adoption or abandon the mother. Non-deadbeats create a [[Secret Identity]] where they have a mundane, even boring job. If he doesn't bother hiding his nasty day job, he will either whitewash it to not seem villainous (replace "mob hit" with "rat infestation", for example) or say "do what daddy says, not what daddy does" without a trace of shame. If he's possessive and/or overprotective and has the means to, his children may become a [[Lonely Rich Kid]] [[Mafia Princess]] who is trapped in a [[Gilded Cage]].
Of course, their kid is going to find out the truth and either be [[Calling the Old Man Out|horrified]] at the [[Double Standard]], or naively eager to become their dad's [[Sidekick]]. Sometimes, to dad's dismay, they will prove that villainy is [[In the Blood]] despite his best intentions. The realization (and some heroic coercion over revealing the truth to his kids) may lead to pulling a [[Heel Face Turn]].
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* Onomatopoeia from [[The DCU]] leads a double life as a loving family man with a wife and two kids while spending his time away from home as a masked [[Serial Killer]] who hunts [[Badass Normal]] vigilantes.
* [[Astro City]] has the original Quarrel intending for his daughter to have a better life than he does, one where she won't be a criminal. In a sense, he succeeds; she becomes a hero, using his name, equipment, and a costume patterned after his. In another sense, he fails; he's not around to see it happen, and she's bitter about the fact that her father was a criminal, to the point that she refuses to talk about him.
* In one issue of the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' spinoff comic, Mirror Master has a young son whose room is full of superhero paraphernalia up to and including a [[The Flash|Flash]] action figure. He is shocked to discover that a fellow villain wears his costume in front of the baby.
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* Michael Sullivan in ''[[Road to Perdition]]''.
* In ''[[The Godfather]]'', Vito Corleone initially wants Michael, at least, to have a legitimate career and become a politician after he leaves the army... however, it's reasonably ambiguous whether he really wants to save him from the family business, or just wants to manipulate Michael's youthful [[Defector From Decadence]] tendencies to give the family a front of respectability and a whole new level of power.
** Everyone always talks about Michael, but this already happened before, with Sonny. When Sonny comes to his dad and asks to be part of the family business, and dad asks why, he reveals he followed his dad and watched him murder a man and dispose of the evidence. The Don realizes the indelible effect this had on his eldest son and reluctantly brings him into the bussines.
* In the second ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' film, Will Turner's father Bootstrap Bill is rather upset to discover his son followed his footsteps into a life of piracy.
** Will didn't follow him into a life of piracy (he broke the law, but the law was [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Lord]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Cutler]] [[Lawful Evil|Beckett]], so that just makes him [[Chaotic Good]]); it's still an example because he doesn't want that life for him, but he's only upset that Will found out and that he wasn't there for him when he needed him.
* Paul Newman's character in ''[[Absence Of Malice]]'' had a father who was a bootlegger. After being caught by his father in doing something illegal his father locked him up in a cabin for a period of time. However the purpose wasn't to necessarily prevent the son from being bad just showing what he should get used to if he goes into a life of crime.
* In ''[[Face Off]],'' the villain's girlfriend Sasha's dying words are "don't let [our son] grow up to be like us."
== Literature ==
* ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' is a case of this. Artemis comes from a family of ''very'' successful criminals, but his father was moving their money into legitimate fields shortly before he went missing. Artemis spent the years they were apart maintaining the family fortune (through crime), funding the search for his father (ditto) and looking after his depressed, bedridden mother. After his father's rescue, there's some friction between what Artemis's parents want for him and the life he's used to.
* In the Robert Crais novel ''The Two Minute Rule'', bank robber Max Holman mentions how he used to pray every night that his son Richie wouldn't end up like him. Might be seen as a subversion: Aside from being a bank robber, Max is more or less a good guy. He even stopped robbing a bank to save a man who was having a heart attack, which resulted in his arrest.
* A Japanese light novel ''[[Durarara!!]]!!'' has a case of this. The Awakusu-kai are rather known local yakuza family. Awakusu Akane is a really good kid who wasn't aware of her family's shady dealings and how much the parents of her classmates go out of their way to look out for her well being, like teaching their kids to always obey her, in fear of the Awakusu name.
* [[Judge Knott]]'s father is a bootlegger (retired) who is very proud of his law-enforcing daughter.
* ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (novel)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'' [[Villain Episode]] sequel ''Sir Percy Hits Back'' reveals the extents Chauvelin went to in order to conceal his job from his daughter.
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